Ruth Gledhill – Times Online – WBLG: Zimbabwe: The devil came late today. Ruth Bakare, wife of the interim bishop of Harare, was the main speaker at a Mother’s Union meeting at an Anglican church in Zimbabwe. Over 3200 women had arrived for the day’s activities and Mrs. Bakare was partway through her talk, which included commentary on a text from Isaiah, “You are my witnesses.” The Mother’s Union is one of those Anglican bodies that evokes images of ladies drinking tea and enjoying a nice day out with educational speakers and fun activities. Not a rout with bully boys…
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Rift Over Zimbabwe Unity Plan – New York Times But on Wednesday, The Herald, the state-run newspaper often used as a mouthpiece for Mr. Mugabe and the ruling party, described the country’s political dynamics as “so distorted that holding a free and fair election runoff in the immediate term is literally impossible.†Swiftly disavowing that position, Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga told the BBC on Wednesday that the editorial had not been sanctioned by the government, and that the ruling party, ZANU-PF, was still gearing up for a runoff. Hey, here’s a handy definition of electioneering, ZANU-PF style:  Gearing up…
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GOP heavyweights reportedly tried to oust Fitzgerald — chicagotribune.com In a bombshell disclosure before testimony began this morning in the Antoin “Tony” Rezko trial, a federal prosecutor said a former Rezko confidant was prepared to say that another friend of Rezko was attempting to pull strings with White House political director Karl Rove to fire U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald and kill his investigation into Rezko.
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Obama chose right word: Who wouldn’t be ‘bitter’ about being Bushed? – Salt Lake Tribune Ah, snarky goodness. Via Salt Blog
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The Times – Bob’s Mad Scramble For Weapons The Sunday Times has established that this week’s Chinese shipment of arms turned away from Durban harbour on Friday was just one of several botched attempts by the embattled Mugabe regime to buy arms this year. One well-placed Zimbabwean defence industry official told the Sunday Times: “In the first three working days after the election, there were queues of people outside (arms procurement) offices — police, the presidential bodyguard unit, army, the CIO. There’s lots of stuff happening today… it’s amazing, frankly, how many people all over the world are mobilizing to…
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File this under “not good.” This is Zimbabwe » Blog Archive » New consignment of arms to be flown in; apparently due to arrive within the next week
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The problem is being discussed at the highest levels of the UN and the African Union… it’s being solved by ordinary Africans who’re in a position to say “no can do.” In multiple African countries! Angola to bar Zim bound weapons of “mass destruction”
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The An Yue Jiang, the Chinese ship that’s supposed to be carrying tons of arms for Zimbabwe left Durban for port or ports unknown; some thought it was headed for nearby Mozambique, but the Mozambicans pulled an Amy Winehouse and denied it access (after first denying it was headed their way, hmm). Now it’s thought to be headed to Angola (there’s a lovely thought, how much of the cargo will actually stay in whatever port eventually accepts it?). The BBC News site has some smuggled video footage (they are banned from officially reporting from within Zimbabwe, but get around it).…
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7online.com: Praying passenger is removed from plane 4/17/08 I don’t want to be too dismissive and need to know more specifics, but on the face of it this smacks of the kind of prayer that’s less private piety and more public propriety. I don’t know if it could have been started earlier or not to be considered right and proper, but it sure sounds like an attention-getting device.
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SW Radio Africa News Story – News story Pray for Zimbabwe. Pray hard. China has secretly shipped tens of thousands of small arms to the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, raising fears the consignment has been brought in to crush any attempts to unseat Robert Mugabe from power. The consignment has cost the regime millions of United States dollars and came through Durban harbour in a Chinese registered vessel, An Yue Juang. It includes 3 million rounds of ammunition for AK47 rifles, the standard assault weapon for the country’s defence forces. There were also 1,500 rocket propelled grenades, a support weapon for…